Match Report 2002-2003
Saturday 04 January, 2003, FA Cup
West Bromich Albion away
City out of the Cup
The absence of Andy Tod underlines the catch-22 that City are in. We have no money to pay for Tod to play so we need to get cup runs but with Juanjo leading the line you could hardly expect a Premiership club to worry.
3-1 flatters West Brom on the balance of the game, a game which was over when Danny Dichio completed a hat-trick in the first twenty minutes, but it does show the state of the Bantams. Two years ago we had Benito Carbone and we were beating Chelsea, now we cannot live at this level, even at one of the Premiership's weaker members.
West Brom under Gary Megson I don't like but when you see the likes of Jason Roberts and Derek McInnes in a Premiership club you wonder what might have been. Both these players were tracked by City and not signed.
With Roberts this is more worrying. He created a goal and looked impressive all game. He was signed from Bristol Rovers for not much and is probably not on that much a week. Compare his signing to Bruno Rodriguez and Jorge Cadete and you begin to see how City blew the Premiership.
Nicky Law picked up the point saying that had City had Dichio and Roberts then City would have won the game. "Nothing between the teams apart from that" suggested Law. He might be right but Dichio was transfer listed and Roberts was available. You feel some sympathy for the millstone wage of Ashley Ward but Danny Cadamarteri is a Law player.
Another Law player, a more typical Law player, is Mark Danks. Drummed out of Wolves with "The wrong attitude" Danks has done well since he came to City and impressed the squad in training with, ironically, the right attitude. He snapped up a goal after Claus Jorgensen rammed a shot onto the underside of the bar. It was rare to see a City player so sharp but as one wag suggested after Paul Reid's two against Norwich at Valley Parade, we will drum that out of him.
So out of the cup again when we really needed to get through. Danks is the future obviously. He is probably not paid much more, if not less, than the £25,000 that stands in the way of Andy Tod and a start for City and along with the likes of Tom Kearney he is the scraps we will feast on with no cash.